Thursday, March 27, 2008

If you happen to stop by my house, you would find that I generally store my wine in gallon jugs. I'm just too darn lazy or getting too old to mess around with filling wine bottles.

Christmas time is a different story. I love to give my better wines away as gifts to friends and family. My problem is that I generally spend hours making the perfect wine label to make my bottles look professional.

This year my problem is solved. At Wine Label Builder you can make a professional looking label in less than a minute.

Not only did I find this as a real time saver but if your making several cases for that special occasion you can have professionally looking labels. Even though Wine Label Builder paid for this review, I found their collection of labels to chose from quite extensive.

Price wise, Wine Label Builder is very reasonable. You can also upload your own custom label and have them print them for you.

So, if your looking for some professional looking labels, give Wine Label Builder a try.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

India Pale Ale, otherwise known as an IPA, is a distinct style of beer and is characterized as a sparkling pale ale with a slightly higher level of alcohol and hops than a typical Pale Ale; the hops lend it a distinct bitterness.

The IPA came about in the mid 1700's as a way for British brewers to ship unspoiled beer to India. The increase in hops and alcohol prevented the beer from spoiling and made for a rather strong tasty brew.

Characteristics of this beer can, as with other styles, vary somewhat, but an IPA will always exhibit the alcohol and hopping that distinguished the original. English brewers designed their IPAs with original gravities of 1070 and above, which translates to alcohol levels of a whopping 7.5 to 8%. Modern recipes usually attain a more modest level of 1050 to 1060 OG, for a subdued, yet still noticeable strength of 5.5 to 7%. Specialty malt additions of carapils and crystal contributes to the deep copper\amber color and provides an undertone of faint but perceptible caramel. Conditioning favors the mild end of the spectrum but at times might be considered quite lively when compared with other English ales.

In general, a traditional IPA will possess a nose of perfumey alcohol, fruitiness, and malt, although newer versions frequently overshadow the malt with strong hops. English brewers typically use hop varieties of Goldings and Fuggles, while American renditions of IPA employ Northern Brewer, Cascade, and Chinook, which project notes of citric or grapefruit-like flavors.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Who blogs about wine? Why, me of course. I did find this article somewhat amusing in that it seems that the casual internet user has no clue about blogs. Also amazing that newspapers are just getting around to the idea of blogging as a source of info. Hope you enjoy the article.

*** Note *** Feed readers may have to visit the blog to read the article.